This animal has been called by many authors the Coati-mondi; I have had
it alive; and, by comparing it with the coati mentioned by Thevet, and
described by Marcgrave, I do not doubt that they are varieties of the
same species; indeed Marcgrave after having given a description of the
coati, says there are others of a blackish brown, and which, for the
sake of distinction are called _coati-mondi_ at Brasil. As the colour
of the hair then is the only difference between them, they certainly
ought to be considered as mere varieties of the same species.
The coati (_fig. 96._) is very different from the animal described in
the preceding article. He is of a smaller size than the raccoon; his
body and neck, head and nose, are of a longer form; the upper jaw is
terminated by a snout, which extends an inch, or an inch and a half,
beyond the lower one; and this snout, which is moveable in every
division, turns up at the point. The eyes of the coati are also smaller
than those of the raccoon; his ears are shorter; his hair longer and
coarser; his legs shorter; his feet longer; but, like the raccoon, his
tail is diversified with rings,[V] and to all its feet there are five
toes.
[V] There are some coatis which have the tail of one uniform colour,
but as they differ in no other particular, they can only be considered
as varieties of the same species.
_Engraved for Barr's Buffon._
[Illustration: FIG. 96. _Brown Coati._]
[Illustration: FIG. 97. _Black Coati._]
[Illustration: FIG. 98. _Agouti_]
Some authors suppose that the sow badger, and the _taxus suillus_, of
which Aldrovandus has given a figure, to be the same as the coati; but
if we consider that the sow-badger, of which hunters speak, is supposed
to be found in France, and even in some colder climates of Europe, and
that, on the contrary, the coati is only known in the southern parts
of America, this idea must be rejected, as having no foundation to
support it; as the figure given by Aldrovandus is nothing more than a
badger, to which the snout of a hog has been added. That author does
not say this _taxus suillus_ was drawn from Nature, nor does he give
any description of the animal itself; and indeed the snout alone of the
coati is sufficient to distinguish it from any other quadruped.
The coati has a practice of gnawing his own tail, which, when not
mutilated, is longer than his body, and which he generally rears
aloft, and moves with ease in any direction. This seemingly unnatural
taste of gnawing their tails is not peculiar to the coati, for some
monkies, and other animals with long tails, frequently shorten them a
fourth, or even one-third, by eating the flesh and the joints. From
this circumstance a general inference may be drawn, namely, that in
very long members, the extremities of which must consequently be very
remote from the centre of sensation, the feeling must be weak, and the
more so the greater the distance and the smaller the part; for if the
extremities of the tails of these animals were very sensible, the pain
excited would prevail over the inclination to mutilate, and they would
preserve their tails with as much care as any other part of their body.
The coati is an animal of prey, which subsists on flesh and blood, and
which, like the fox or marten, destroys small animals and poultry,
hunts for the nests of birds, and devours their eggs; and it is,
probably, from this conformity of disposition, rather than from any
resemblance to the marten, that the coati has been considered as a
small species of the fox.